BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Neal Sims
dressed in a hot dog suit Friday night and rode a five-foot-tall bicycle into
the face of danger.

Sims, who
was riding a "tall bike" for just the second time, carried a pole with a ball
of foam at the end and rode into the face of another jouster again and again,
each trying to knock the other to the grass at the side of Good People Brewing
Company in downtown Birmingham. Sims, 25, lost his round, which was decided in
sudden-death overtime by a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Sims, a
friend of Redemptive Cycles owner Marcus Fetch, joined others from the
Birmingham biking community and organizations from Birmingham Mountain Radio to
Seeds Coffee on the bikes. The rules were simple: Two points if you knock your
opponent off and stay on your bike, one point if you both fall but you stay on
your feet and they don't.

Still, it
wasn't always easy going for the inexperienced jousters.

"You can
only use your left hand to steer," Sims said. He said he doesn't own a car and
rides normal bikes all the time, but the tall bikes are more difficult to
manage.

Sims, who
dressed in a hot dog suit because he was working with the Ferocious Dogs hot
dog stand, said his strategy was simple.

"I figured
if you went straight for the person, they'd wimp out," he said, "but he was
thinking the same thing."

Benjamin
Phanco was traveling through Birmingham from Huntsville when some friends told
him about the event. He's lived in places with a more robust bicycle culture --
like Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash. -- but hadn't seen jousting in person.
He said he's seen videos of jousting, but that the most common bicycle sport he's
seen is polo.

"Bicycle
polo is everywhere," he said. "It's the same rules as hockey, except with
bicycles."

Heather
Davis and her husband Colton came out to support Fetch, a friend of theirs.
Heather Davis said she was impressed with the tall bike riding because she's
ridden one before.

Colton Davis
said he was happy for Fetch because of how many people showed up at the event.

"It's cool
to see a guy just put his energy into something and make it all happen," he
said.

No jousters
suffered any serious injuries, though one spectator -- the mother of a jouster
-- fell on a concrete step and hit her head. She had to be taken away by
ambulance, but Fetch said her injuries didn't appear to be too serious.

Fetch said
about 150 to 200 people showed up, and while he had hoped for more, he wasn't
going to complain.

"I'm just
happy that people were able to come out," he said. "Next year I'll expect a lot
more."